"Women freedom fighters have been isolated from their male counterparts. Some of them are now euphemistically called birangana (war women sexually abused by Pakistani forces)," Ashalata Baidya, who was the commander of 24 women fighters in Kotalipara in Gopalganj, told Star City.

"Thousands of women were physically tortured, but history almost forgot their participation in battlefields," said Ashalata, one of the 12 women freedom fighters Proshika, a non-governmental organisation, accorded a reception on March 25. Her team worked as a suicide squad, trained in firearms, grenades and explosives.

Ashalata feels ignored as she says people did not take women freedom fighters seriously. "We fought for our country. I didn't worry about my own safety … that was the last thing on my mind."

Wars are not fought only in battlefields, neither are they fought only with guns. War heroes include those who supported valiant freedom fighters with food, shelter and funds, nursed the wounded and hid weapons risking their lives.

They also include those who sent their sons to war, who lost their loved ones, suffered sexual abuse and survived to tell their stories.

Pakistani occupation forces captured Kanchanmala and forced her into a military camp near Shibganj Bazaar. She was among 20 women repeatedly beaten and sexually tortured.

"Army stripped us naked and left us huddled in a room. They gave food once a day. Beating was a matter of routine. Some women lost their teeth in torture and found their lips bruised," Kanchan said of 18 days in captivity.

Battered, yet determined, Kanchan tried several times to flee the camp. "It was raining outside. Pakistani army shot me on the run. I fell down. They caught me before I could escape. They shoved me out of the camp thinking me dead from beating," Kanchan, now living in a slum in Mirpur, recalled. In the post-war years, Kanchan went back to her husband but had to leave him.

"How can I talk about it? What's the point talking? It will bring me only shame and dishonour. I became the target of insult. I think I don't need humans in my life," Kanchan said on a cynical note.

Ambia Khatun is one of the women who devoted themselves to taking care of refugees and nursing the wounded warriors. Ambia, then 16, was also trained for battlefields.

Thirty-three years on, the women who went to war are still battling on a different front -- life in social deprivation. "No-one talks about women. Everyone sings the praises of men," Ambia said.

"Bangladesh got freedom, but we never got back what we lost. We still couldn't rebuild our houses," Smriti Rekha sobbed out her loss. "Did we benefit from independence?"